Scent-Lok getting sued-- suits are a fraud

Suit says clothes don't pass smell test


I saw this link over at KentuckyHunting.net . Frankly, I was wondering when this was going to happen.

I used to have this shady friend named Crazy Pete. Pete was always just on the edge. Pete had this gimmick for getting women. He advertised in the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Nursing Assistants Needed. Entry level. No experience necessary. Will train." He had a bazillion responses from eager women. The ugly ones he sloughed off. The cute ones got his special charms.

Frequently, the applicants were mad that Pete really didn't have any job openings. Pete would tell them how to spruce up their resume, fix themselves up and present themselves to real employers. He charged a nominal fee for these services-- cash or other gratuities. In the end, he actually helped a lot of women out of the rut they were in and they went on to successful jobs. The funny thing was that he never got arrested.

See, that's the way I look at the whole scent-blocking scheme with deer hunting. Somebody advertises a miracle and folks line up to buy it. Then they get a list of instructions that sound a lot like Pete's advice. Only instead of "loose the nose ring, stop slouching, hide the tattoos" you get a list of instructions on how to be scent-free. Most of the magic of scent-free clothing is the instruction booklet. Once you start segregating your clothing, bathe frequently, etc. etc. your scent profile starts dropping. The deer stop snorting in disgust. Voila! A Miracle.

Pete was an unabashed con-artist. However, he showed a lot of women how to present themselves and bag a good job. Scent control suits function the same way. Half of magic of the suits and Pete's business was the willingness of the hunter (or nursie wanna be) to seek a change in their habits and respond to the ad in the first place.

My jadedness regarding scent control comes from the success I started having after reading a few articles back in the late 80's about how to trick a deer's nose. Mind you, I was into old-style deer hunting at the time, with lots of stinky wool hunting clothes that never saw a washing machine or a dry cleaner. When I got started as a deer hunter, I went into the woods smelling like the inside of an army surplus store, and after three days in the woods, I would come out and stuff everything in a duffle bag and it would sit in the closet until the next weekend. I had a Jon-E handwarmer that belched naptha fumes, and I smoked a pipe on my stand.

All that changed when I learned about the wonders of sodium bicarbonate. I put aside all the wool stuff and down stuff and started wearing clothes that I could easily put in a washing machine with sodium bicarb instead of detergent. Wow! What a change! I stopped getting busted. I started seeing more deer. Soon I as getting up close and personal with the deer and having my way with them. It was a miracle!

Then about 6 years later, somebody starts coming out with charcoal hunting suits. At first, I thought it was a product that did not have a need. Then I started seeing people actually buying these suits. No outdoor writer was raising an alarm. In fact some that had been touting the sodium bicarb idea in '88 were now touting expensive charcoal suits in '95.

Hmmm.